Amplitude analysis of Kaon-nucleon scattering data

The KN scattering amplitudes have been extracted from experimental data in the energy range 3 ? k ? 14 GeV/c and for transfer values between ?0.05 and ?0.6 GeV².The ω and P+f helicity-flip amplitudes and the A₂ helicity non-flip amplitude have been neglected; it is shown, that these simplifications are compatible with the data and have no significant influence on our results. One needs to assume the approximate validity of SU(3) symmetry for the ? and A₂ couplings. A very important constraint for this analysis comes from recent experimental data for the reaction K_L⁰p → K_S⁰p. The results for A₂ and ω exchanges are analysed as functions of momentum transfer and energy and we test several current theoretical ideas. Information about f-exchange is also obtained when some further assumptions are made concerning SU(3) symmetry and duality at t = 0. Extrapolating the amplitudes to t = 0 a comparison is made with dispersion relation calculations; at other t-values we compare with results obtained from finite energy sum rules and other analyses based on fixed f analyticity. The predictions for KN data which have not been considered in this analysis are shown to be in good agreement. One of our results is that the ?-ω universality rule is approximately satisfied; we also find a strong indication for a peripheral behaviour of the imaginary part of the non-flip f-exchange amplitude.